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Valspar Proudly Contributes to Asheville's New City Centre Success

Asheville City Centre

By all accounts, downtown Asheville, North Carolina is in the midst of a building renaissance, blending new civic construction with its many historic landmarks. Top of the list is Asheville’s City Centre complex, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 2016. The 2.4-acres it incorporates a four-story, 84,000 square-foot office building that is linked by a courtyard and a parking deck to as ix-story Hilton Garden Inn. Called the “gateway corner to the city,” City Centre is centrally located at the intersection of College and South Charlotte Streets.

It’s no secret that achieving quality design and construction practices can be a challenge and City Centre office building was no exception. Pullman Properties had high aesthetic expectations, a limited budget and a relatively short construction timeline. Adding to these conditions was North Carolina’snew 2012 energy code that requiresc ontinuous insulation for any building envelope. Nevertheless, the City Centre development team met the challenge gracefully with a strong design vision and innovative use of materials.

Designed by Aaron Brumo of Clark Nexsen Architects, the parallelogram-shaped office building deftly blends high functionality with sophisticated design.

“We wanted to create a building that felt open from the outside,” explained Brumo. “But our energy model dictated that we could only have about 50 percent glass in the building’s facade and still meet the energy code.”

How to get ample light into the building’s interior and still comply with energy codes and budget constraints was the design challenge. A facade of tall, narrow windows that would allow significant amounts of light into the building’s interior was the design solution. However, the design included a staggered pattern of windows that are recessed by three inches, resulting in a building that evokes a sense of texture, depth and dynamism.

The initial plan to clad City Centre with an insulated metal panel system proved to be too costly, given the structure’s moderate scale and its staggered window pattern. The architecture team and the general contractor, Vannoy Construction, determined a better strategy for the building’s skin was to install an aluminum composite material (ACM) system by APOLIC®.

The APOLIC® ACM panels could be fabricated in multiple sizes to create the façade’s surface pattern and accommodate its irregular glazing demands. According to Brumo, “With the ACM paneling, we can do anything. We can change planes, we can set the windows back in the building so everything’s not out in the same plane and flat. We can achieve depth. And the ACM panel can just turn and wrap right into the window jamb, which makes it really clean and simple and easy to waterproof. You can pretty much do whatever you want with an ACM panel.” Significantly, the APOLIC® panel system would be applied with Valspar’s Valflon FEVE architectural coating, giving the client a wide range of options for colors and finishes.

The ALPOLIC® ACM panels were installed using the innovative R-Trac H.V.H.Z pressure-equalized rainscreen system developed by Altech Panel Systems ncollaboration with Mitsubishi Plastics Composites America, and Rmax. The R-Trac H.V.H.Z (High Velocity Hurricane Zone) system is designed to work with continuous insulation in compliance with the latest energy-efficiency codes.

To achieve the desired neutral but sophisticated look, the client and architect selected Valspar’s Valflon coil coatings in AGT Aluminum Gray, BGY Gray and MST Mist White. The three muted colors impart a sleek, modernist feel to the buildings façade giving it an elegant dimensionality, without sacrificing performance. The Valflon FEVE fluoropolymer-based resin is durable with excellent adhesion and flexibility. It is also resistant to air-borne chemicals and protects against weathering, chalking and fading. Valflon is an environment-friendly coating and alongside its durability and high color-retention capabilities, make it a product that helps align the City Centre project with North Carolina’s environmental policies.